Work-study salary: calculating an apprentice's payroll

Quick answer. A work-study (apprentice) salary is calculated as a regulatory percentage of the SMIC that depends on age and contract year. For contracts signed since 1 March 2025, employee contributions and CSG-CRDS are exempt up to 50% of the SMIC. A hiring aid of EUR 5,000 (EUR 6,000 if the apprentice has a disability) exists in 2026, subject to conditions.

Hiring an apprentice costs far less than a standard employee, on one condition: that the payroll is set up correctly. In the files we take over, the apprentice payslip concentrates recurring errors, either because the employee exemption threshold is misapplied, or because the hiring aid was never claimed. Here is how to run this payroll without leaving money on the table, and without taking a risk in case of an URSSAF audit.

This article follows the logic of an owner hiring their first apprentice: how much to pay, which contributions to withhold, up to which threshold the exemption applies, and which aid to claim. For the operational detail of producing payslips, see also our outsourced payroll service.

An apprentice's pay is not free to set: it equals a minimum percentage of the SMIC fixed by regulation. That percentage varies with two parameters:

• the apprentice's age;
• the contract year (first, second, third year).

The older the apprentice and the further they progress in their course, the higher the minimum percentage. We do not give a fixed figure here, because it depends on the age / year combination and on the regulatory scale in force: this is precisely what must be recalculated at each hire and at each of the apprentice's birthdays.

Two practical nuances we often see forgotten:

• the collective bargaining agreement may set a more favourable minimum than the legal one; that minimum then applies;
• moving from one age bracket to another, or from one contract year to the next, triggers a pay increase that must be applied in the right month.

Our reading#

The real issue is not the gross figure on display, it is the net the apprentice receives and the actual cost to the company. Thanks to the exemptions, the gap between gross and net is very small for an apprentice, and the employer cost is heavily reduced. It is this twin advantage, more than the hourly rate itself, that makes apprenticeship attractive for a small or mid-sized company.

This is where most of the value, and most of the errors, sit.

Employee contributions: exempt up to 50% of the SMIC#

For apprenticeship contracts signed since 1 March 2025, apprentices' pay is exempt from employee contributions of legal and contractual origin, and from CSG-CRDS, up to 50% of the SMIC.

In concrete terms:

• the share of pay at or below 50% of the SMIC escapes employee contributions and CSG-CRDS;
• the portion above 50% of the SMIC is subject to employee contributions and CSG-CRDS.

This is a break from the former regime, under which an apprentice could be exempt on a wider share. Any apprentice whose pay crosses this 50%-of-the-SMIC threshold therefore sees employee withholdings appear on the upper part of their salary.

Employer contributions: the general reduction#

On the employer side, exemptions of employer social-security contributions apply through the general reduction, and this runs until the apprenticeship contract ends. This mechanism is what flattens the employer cost over the whole contract. To understand the logic of this reduction and its calculation, see our article on the general degressive reduction (RGDU).

The underestimated risk#

The 50%-of-the-SMIC threshold is a moving threshold: it shifts with the value of the SMIC and with the apprentice's pay (raised at each change of age or year). In several files we took over, the setup had been frozen at the start of the contract and never readjusted: the company was exempting wrongly, or conversely contributing on an inaccurate base. A retroactive adjustment after an URSSAF audit is always more painful than month-by-month monitoring.

Apprenticeship gives entitlement, subject to conditions, to a hiring aid paid to the employer. For 2026, the framework is as follows:

These amounts should be treated as the 2026 framework subject to conditions: company size (fewer than 250 employees) and the level of the qualification prepared condition eligibility, and aid terms change regularly. Before budgeting on the basis of these amounts, check the precise eligibility of your situation. For an overview of the schemes available at hiring, see our overview of 2026 hiring aids.

1. Check the contract and the age. Confirm it is indeed an apprenticeship contract (not a professionalisation one), note the signature date, the apprentice's age and the contract year.
2. Calculate the minimum pay. Apply the regulatory percentage of the SMIC matching the age and year, then compare with any more favourable contractual minimum.
3. Apply the employee exemption. For a contract signed since 1 March 2025, exempt employee contributions and CSG-CRDS on the share at or below 50% of the SMIC; subject the portion beyond it.
4. Handle employer contributions. Compute employer contributions with the general reduction, applicable until the contract ends.
5. Produce and check the payslip. Verify the base of each line, the net amount, and the consistency of the exempt share against the 50%-of-the-SMIC threshold.
6. File and claim the aid. Report the data in the monthly DSN, then start the hiring-aid claim once eligibility is confirmed.

A properly configured payroll software secures these steps. We work in particular with Silae to automate the threshold and general-reduction calculation, which avoids manual adjustments.

The apprenticeship contract and the professionalisation contract are two distinct work-study contracts, with their own rules: target audience, pay, social regime and aids do not line up. The exemptions and hiring aid described here concern the apprenticeship contract. Before configuring payroll, identify unambiguously the contract that was signed: this is a frequent confusion that distorts the whole calculation chain.

A Paris-based SME with 18 employees hires a 21-year-old apprentice in the second year of a two-year vocational diploma. The payroll had been carried over as-is from a contract template predating March 2025: the employee exemption was being applied beyond 50% of the SMIC, which is no longer correct for recent contracts. After reconfiguration, the share above 50% of the SMIC was correctly subjected to contributions, and the EUR 5,000 hiring aid (company with fewer than 250 employees, upper-secondary qualification) was claimed, having been overlooked. Anonymised detail, for illustration only.

• Contract signature date: the employee exemption regime up to 50% of the SMIC targets contracts signed since 1 March 2025; do not carry over an old setup.
• Moving threshold: re-check the crossing of 50% of the SMIC at each SMIC revaluation and at each change of the apprentice's age or year.
• Hiring aid: 2026 amounts subject to size and qualification-level conditions, to be checked before budgeting.
• Right contract: apprenticeship and professionalisation do not follow the same rules.

• Contract type confirmed (apprenticeship)
• Age and contract year noted
• Minimum pay recalculated (SMIC scale + collective agreement)
• 50%-of-the-SMIC threshold set in the payroll software
• General reduction activated until the contract ends
• Hiring-aid eligibility checked (size, qualification level)
• Monthly DSN ready